Nonwoven manufacturer Nan Liu Enterprise Co Ltd (南六) yesterday said it expected its capacity to produce spunlace nonwovens would increase 60 percent to 3,800 tonnes per month by the end of this year, making it the top provider across the Taiwan Strait.
Spunlace nonwoven is a major raw material used to make surgical gowns, drapes and wipes used in many industries.
Sales of spunlace nonwoven products accounted for 56 percent of Nan Liu’s total revenue, with its major markets in Asia.
Because of the technological know-how and high capital investment required for firms to enter the market, only Dupont and Nan Liu have the ability to produce medical-grade spunlace nonwovens.
Additionally, only Dupont, Polymer Group Inc, Nan Liu and some Chinese firms are able to produce spunlace nonwovens for industrial use, Nan Liu’s commercial director said at a pre-initial public offering (IPO) conference for investors yesterday.
The company, which is scheduled to move the trading of its shares to the Taiwan Stock Exchange early next month from the Emerging Stock Market, has tentatively set an IPO price of NT$50 a share.
It plans to raise NT$405 million (US$13.5 million) from the IPO by issuing 8.1 million new shares.
Nan Liu reported revenue of NT$971.89 million from January through last month, up 16.59 percent from NT$833.62 million a year ago, which the company attributed to new product launches.
It did not provide comparative numbers for the fourth quarter last year.
Last year, Nan Liu reported net profit of NT$197 million, up 41.26 percent from NT$139.46 million in 2011.
Nan Liu’s shares closed flat at NT$67.5 on the Emerging Stock Market yesterday.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure